Thanks to the readers’ interest in cats, I’m being literally (not figuratively) inundated with feline-related items. I have three for today.

The first is a report that the famous internet cat Colonel Meow, one of the most bizarre-looking cats I’ve ever seen, has won the Guinness Book of World Records prize for having the longest measured fur of any domestic cat (nine inches!). The Colonel was actually a stray who was rescued from the side of the road. PuffHo reports on Meow’s award:

Guinness World Records has officially recognized the two-year-old Himalayan-Persian crossbreed as the cat with the longest fur.

In order to get the hair-raising honor, three independent vets each meticulously measured 10 strands of kitty fur and came up with an average length that was submitted to Guinness.

When the fur was done flying around, the experts said Colonel Meow’s average hair length was a whopping nine inches.

As you might expect, most of Colonel Meow’s record-setting fur ends up on the floor, furniture and his owners Anne Marie Avey and Eric Rosario.

“Literally everything in the house has hair on it, including us!” Avey said, according to Guinness World Records. “I feel like I’m always vacuuming!”

Here he is with his certificate.

Reader Butter Cat (aka Anonypuss), although also long of fur and green with envy, sent these images of the Colonel:

Here’s a heartening bit of news to which we all contributed. As announced by Yahoo.com, the Monopoly game is finally debuting its new CAT TOKEN. You may remember that, in January, I asked readers to vote for the cat over the other tokens in contention, including a stupid diamond ring, robot, helicopter, and guitar.

Thanks to your votes, and especially to Butter Cat, who has an amazing ability to vote repeatedly in these contests (remember when we won the internet “who-is-cuter:-kittens-puppies-or-babies contest”?), the sleek and stylish cat token won, replacing the dowdy old iron token.

Nearly seven months after winning a worldwide vote, the cat token is finally making its debut in the classic board game. Hasbro has officially begun rolling out the new gamepiece, which will permanently replace the iron token.

In addition to being packaged in new Monopoly boxes, the cat will also be making a public appearance at the 2013 Internet Cat Video Festival at the Minnesota State Fair later today.

The cat won the coveted spot in early February. Players were asked to choose between a cat, a helicopter, a diamond ring, a robot, and a guitar. Given the fact that Internet votes were accepted, it’s no big surprise that the cat won, capturing 31 percent of the vote.

As for the iron, it ends an impressive 78-year run in the game (it was one of the original metal tokens in Monopoly). It almost managed to extend that run, as the boot and wheelbarrow were also at risk of being sent to game token jail. In the end, though, they managed to edge out a win among voters.

Here’s the new token. Isn’t it lovely?

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Finally, this story has been all over the place, which goes to show you that the arc of morality bends towards justice. Here’s the report from the GlobalPost, in its entirety:

In what has to be one of the cutest travel snafus in New York City history, two rogue kittens shut down Brooklyn’s B and Q subway lines for over an hour Thursday, as staff staged a successful rescue mission.

Almost certainly aware that kitten endangerment is the worst PR possible, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority decided to cut power to the entire B line and part of the Q line, so that workers could safely search for the cats near the dangerously electrified third rail.

The third rail packs a whopping 600 volts of electricity, wrote Pix11.com. “If you touch that third rail, you’re not going to make it — people and especially cats, anything that moves,” said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz.

The kitten crisis appears to have begun early Thursday, after a woman reported that her kittens were loose in the subway system, reports the Associated Press.

Their adventure would last for seven hours, prompting many volunteers to help search for the adorable vagrants. Passengers were delayed, and a shuttle service was provided for points between the Q lines.

Two cops eventually were able to corral the kittens and whisk them to safety, reports the New York Daily News.

“The announcer said it had to stop to rescue some cats, said subway rider Sandra Polel to the New York Daily News. “I didn’t mind. I wanted to get home, but I also wanted the kittens to be safe.”

Colonel is such a beautiful cat! He is adorable and I think it’s a combination of his extremely fluffy feat and the way his cute face is framed by fur that sort of looks like horns!

Something about how the other monopoly pieces were described as “stupid” made me LOL.

I’m glad people were happy to help the kitties. I heard yesterday on CBC that an animal abuser was sentenced to 4 months in jail & cannot own pets for 3 years, which is unusual in Canada. I would like to see animals be protected in the criminal code instead of defined as property so stiffer penalties could be enforced!